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I was always a big fan of fantasy when I was growing up. I would still be if there were a reasonable amount of true standalone novels in the genre to scratch the occasional itch. But there's not. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry gets a contract to write a fantasy series before anyone knows if the author is even capable of satisfactorily completing a multi-volume work.
So while I understand the "write what you like/read what you like philosophy, the fact is that fans of stand alone fantasy novels have very few options to "read what they like." I can't just mix in a one-off fantasy novel every now and then because no one's writing them. And I've already read most of the ones that do exist.
Starting a thread for recommendations for true stand alone fantasy novels will devolve into readers' rationalizations about why "this one" installment of their favorite series should be considered a stand-alone (it's not). And it will devolve inside of 4-5 posts. I've done it. "Series mentality" is so ingrained in the fantasy genre that fans have no choice but to grant special dispensation to books that are clearly part of a series to build a list of stand alone fantasy novels of any substance.
I've no doubt that for some (maybe even many) fantasy authors, "the series" is a natural side-effect of their artistic vision. But the fact that true one-offs in the genre are virtually non-existent is proof enough for me that the driving force behind this dogma is business and not art.
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